Biden marks 50M vax doses at govs’ meet
President Biden urged governors to “come together” in combating the coronavirus as his administration surpassed a key milestone in its efforts to end the pandemic.
Fifty million coronavirus vaccine shots have been administered in the 37 days since Biden took office, putting the president halfway toward fulfilling his pledge of getting 100 million shots into the arms of Americans in his first 100 days in office.
“The more people get vaccinated, the faster we’re going to beat this pandemic,” Biden said at the White House ceremony on Thursday marking the 50 millionth shot just days after commemorating the 500,000 Americans lost to the virus.
More than 45 million Americans have received at least one dose of either Pfizer or Moderna’s vac- cines since they were granted emergency use authorization late last year, with more than 20 million people receiving both required doses.
“We’re moving in the right direction, though, despite the mess we inherited from the previous administration,” Biden said.
A third vaccine, from Johnson & Johnson, is expected to receive emergency use authorization shortly. Biden told governors during a National Governors Association winter meeting on Thursday that the feds will roll out doses to states “as quickly as Johnson & Johnson can make the vaccine.”
“This cruel winter’s not over, but if we come together, we can assure a more hopeful spring,” Biden told governors including Charlie Baker. “That’s what we’re working to do together.”
The Biden administration has increased vaccine distribution to states by 70% and embarked on several efforts to boost the number of vaccination sites and people administering vaccines nationwide.
But Baker, testifying before a legislative oversight panel earlier on Thursday, repeatedly blamed the Bay State’s rocky vaccine rollout on limited supply of doses from the feds.
“We don’t receive anywhere near enough vaccine each week from the feds to provide our existing vaccinators with what they request or to work through most of the currently eligible population that wants a vaccine now,” Baker said. “To put to work all the folks who are available today to vaccinate our residents and dramatically increase the number of people are able to get vaccinated each week here in the commonwealth, we’re going to need to see a dramatic increase in federal supply coming to Massachusetts.”